Monster (nonfiction)
A monster is any creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is often hideous and may produce fear or physical harm by its appearance and/or its actions.
See also Demon.
The word usually connotes something wrong or evil; a monster is generally morally objectionable, physically or psychologically hideous, and/or a freak of nature.
It can also be applied figuratively to a person with similar characteristics like a greedy person or a person who does horrible things.
The word "monster" derives from Latin monstrum, meaning an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, that was taken as a sign that something was wrong within the natural order.
The root of monstrum is monere, which means both to warn, and to instruct.
Monere is also the root of the modern English demonstrate.
Thus, the monster is also a sign or instruction. This benign interpretation was proposed by Saint Augustine, who did not see the monster as inherently evil, but as part of the natural design of the world, a kind of deliberate category error.
In the News
December 16, 2017: Do Not Tease Monster voted Image of the Year in a survey of 3200 monsters.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, says Francisco Goya.
Monster wants Lapilli soup.
Comer's Midden will always be home, wherever a Comer's Midden Monster may roam.
The evil Zahhak, nailed to wall of cave in Mount Davamand, vows revenge.
Medusa at Didyma.
Do Not Tease Monster means what it says, warn experts.
Karl Jones in Demon costume, Halloween 2009.
Fiction cross-reference
- Egg Tooth (monster)
- Human Flea Circus
- You Are the Monsters - Never "agree to disagree" with monsters. Always say "Here is the truth: you are the monsters."
Categories
Nonfiction cross-reference
External links
- Monster @ Wikipedia